What do paintings tell us about sex? How is art gendered? In this course we will study some of the world’s most beloved pictures guided by expert curators and art historians who step outside of the square, bringing a gendered reading to the masterpieces contained in the magnificent collections that we have been lucky enough to bring to the Coursera platform. In this course you will learn how:
* Gender and sexuality is an integral part of the production and reception of works of art
* To increase your understanding of paintings through theories of gender and sexuality
* To understand key terms from gender-related theories of art history and museology
* To recognise the operation of what is termed ‘the gaze’ and how it works in relation to paintings
* Ideas about gender and sexuality can productively be employed in theorising art curatorial practices
* To take the initiative in relating theoretical ideas about gender and sexuality to the reading and display of art and visual cultures.
View the MOOC promotional video here: http://tinyurl.com/hm7qbl3

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NM

Very interesting course. Gives you insights on how gender played an important role in the arts. Also how to differentiate and read work on sexuality and gender.

JU

Aug 24, 2019

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Thank you so much for allowing me the privilege to be a part of this learning experience. I t's the first thing I do, while having my morning tea.

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Orientalism, Gender and Display - Painting in Morocco

This week Dr Caroline Wallace and I present a study of two artists working in Morocco in the early twentieth century; the British Royal Academy painter John Lavery and the Australian modernist Hilda Rix Nicholas. They examine how these artists used orientalist conventions to represent a European point of view of life in Morocco. In this unit we consider how colonialism, orientalism and gender relate to each other, impacting upon academic and modernist art in a variety of ways that are not immediately apparent. We discuss how orientalist art is gendered, investigating why Rix Nicholas’ practice has been described as counter-orientalist.

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Jeanette Hoorn

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[MUSIC] In this unit, we're going to learn about gender issues as they relate to the Orientalist tradition in academic painting of the early 20th century. We'll begin with John Lavery's, In Morocco. A wonderfully lush Orientalist canvas, painted by Lavery in 1912 when he was living in northern Morocco in the city of Tangier with his wife, Hazel and daughter, Alice. They are both models for the picture. In the 1890s, the Lavery's bought a house on the hill overlooking Tangier. Regularly living in that city for extended periods of time over the next 30 years. The Australian artist, Hilda Rix Nicholas visited the artist studio in 1912. She and her sister Elsie, visited the Laverys in their house on the hill, and saw this very picture sitting on its easel in Sir John's studio. Elsie Rix wrote to their mother, Elizabeth, in London. Mr Lavery's studio is very beautiful, the loveliest I've seen. He is working on a beautiful canvas, an enormous one of his little girl, on a white horse, with his wife standing beside her in the garden. The whole colour scheme is delightful, especially the colour of his wife's dress. There's a little Arab boy in a Djellaba in the picture, too. The whole scheme is lovely. Later in this tutorial, we will consider Hilda Rix's Tangerian output and how she, like that of many artists and writers of the period, took up a counter-Orientalist position. But first, let's look at John Lavery's, In Morocco. When this vibrant, almost cinematic painting was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1915, John Lavery was a very popular artist in the UK, and this painting in Morocco was regarded as one of his masterpieces. Produced by the artist at the peak of his powers and described by the reviewer in the London Observer as a work of the rarest distinction. The eye is drawn to it here in the Gallery, housing Modern British Art. And it when it arrived in Melbourne, local critics praised it effusively for the sheer beauty of the scene it represented. The consummate mastery of the drawing and the brilliant evocation of the fleeting effects of sunlight. In this lovely painting, we see what Lavery was best known for in his Moroccan paintings. A talent for brilliant composition, striking use of colour and light, and an attention to local costume. In addition, his pictures are noteworthy for the record that they present us with today of the incursions of Europeans into Morocco. The cosmopolitan nature of that city, and the powerful impact that the Orientalist movement continued to play in the academic painting of the early 20th century. Artists of the previous centuries, such as Eugene Delacroix, who visited Morocco and Algeria in the early 1830s, produced his magnificent Women of Algiers in their apartment of 1834. He painted well-known Orientalist themes centred on the harems and the paschas of Morocco and Algeria. But artists of the early 20th century were concerned rather about the formal qualities of paint, colour, light and composition, focusing on the every day life of the Maghreb, and their enjoyment of it. In this week's unit, we will consider John Lavery's painting from a number of perspectives. Including the manner in which women are represented within Orientalist pictures, the role of the model in early 20th century painting, and the politics of museum display. We will also look at some of the work produced by Hilda Rix Nicholas, who was painting in Tangier over the same period. In this evocative study of light and color, we see the artist's family in the compound of Dar-el-Midfa, their home in Tangiers. Young Alice is mounted on Lilly Bo, her Arab stallion dressed in lavish Arabian trimmings. While Hazel Lady Lavery stands next to the young equestrian giving her a steady hand. A Moroccan lad restrains the family's greyhound. Lady Lavery is wearing a hooded cream Djellaba, traditionally worn by both men and women in Morocco. As Dr. Caroline Wallace will explain in a moment, Hazel Lavery was herself an artist, but here she acts as her husband's model, as she had done on many occasions before. If we think back to our work on the representation of men and women in art, and the way in which the gaze operates, how would you characterise the power or agency of the three figures here represented? Are the Lavery women represented as active or passive figures? What role does the young boy play in the composition? And what about the animals? How do they interact with the human figures in the composition? The appearance of the Lavery family in Orientalist costume, right down to the family's domestic animals, has political overtones, and is not merely relevant from a decorative or artistic viewpoint. Men and women have figured in an enormous range of Orientalist paintings, produced by artists from all over Europe and America for many centuries. The largest body of work came from French and British artists, and their interests dates before the Napoleonic age when incursions into North Africa and the Middle East began, and continued to expand into the 20th century. Intellectual interest followed economic ambition. During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, French writers, such as Racine and Moliere famously produced works based on narratives around Turkish themes. With Turkish arts, costume and architecture becoming the subject of sustained French scholarship. Artists such as Jean-Etienne Liotard and Jean-Antoine Watteau, visiting the Turkish court in Constantinople. Painted portraits of Turkish dignitaries in what the West described as Oriental costume. In 1704, the Arabian Nights were translated into French, and an English translation followed two years later. But it was not until Richard Burton's 1885 translation, that the work became a hit in the English-speaking world. The lives of the Pashas and the Sultans also appeared in the work of artists such as Francois Boucher and Jean-Honore' Fragonard. Whose courtly canvases we've already studied. But after Napoleon's incursion into Egypt, 1788-9, Orientalism underwent an explosion in cosmopolitan centres throughout Europe. There had been interest in Morocco by European artists over many centuries. Largely because of its proximity to Europe, and its strategic position in relation to the Mediterranean. Spain claimed control over the North African coast in the early 17th century, and England established a naval colony there as early as 1661. France formally annexed Algeria much later in 1830. It became France's largest and most prosperous colony. Following the consolidation of French rule in Algeria, the government prepared to send a delegation to Morocco in 1832. With the aim of extending its influence into the region. The French sent a diplomatic mission, that included Eugene Delacroix, who was 34 when he arrived in Morocco on January the 25th, 1832. Beginning his famous Moroccan diaries the next day. During his time in Tangier, Delacroix completed an impressive body of work. He spent three days in Algiers, where he prepared the sketches for Women of Algiers. This painting became a favourite work among the Parisian art world, entering the Louvre in 1874. Paul Cezanne admired it greatly, and Picasso reinterpreted the painting in his own Women of Algiers after Delacroix. One of the three series of variations on past masterpieces that he completed in the 1950s. The Scottish array painter David Roberts, also traveled to Tangier in the early 1830s. And 50 years later, Monet and Renoir visited North Africa at different times. Delacroix's diary and his work inspired many other artists to visit Tangier, including the American artists Louis Comfort Tiffany and Robert Swain. So when Hilda Rix Nicholas and John Lavery found themselves painting in Tangier in 1912, they were treading a relatively well-worn path that had been prepared for them through the exigencies of colonialism. As two individual artists, they also approached their subject matter quite differently. In a moment, we will examine Hilda Rix's work in the context of the gendering of Orientalism. But before we do so, let's consider In Morocco as a picture in a museum. How does the way the work is represented in the museum environment influence our gendered perceptions of it? [MUSIC]